Recording Dilemma

Hi...digital music beginner here...basically, i'm trying to do a rough recording of vocals on my laptop...I initially tried it with my computer microphone but thee quality was pathetic...so i went out and bought a Shure 58 mic and an ART Studio V3 Mic Pre-amp...now here's my problem...my Mic Pre-amp out is 1/4 inch, which i've converted to an 1/8 inch using a connector since my mic input into the laptop is 1/8 inch...but i am not getting ANY sound to record!...the mic and the pre-amp are connected with an XLR cable and that works b'cos i can see the output meter gauge on the pre-amp move when i am using the mic...but for some reason, the sound is not going from the pre-amp to the laptop...

does anyone know why this is happening?...any suggestions on how to rectify this?...need help desperately!

Most standard soundcards have two 1/8" stereo jack inputs. One for the "microphone" and one "Line input". The microphone input usually has some sort of pathetic "preamp" built in the sound card, so if you have an external preamp you should use the "line in" jack. As I said before these jacks are "Stereo" meaning they actually have two channels of input. Two hot wires and one ground, the ground being the sleeve and the hots being the tip and ring. Your preamp may have one of two types of outputs, 1/4 balanced or 1/4 unbalanced. I would assume that it probably has 1/4 unbalanced outputs which have tip and sleeve. You will most likely need to make your own adapter. Get a stereo 1/8 plug and a 1/4 mono plug. Solder wires connecting both tips and both sleeves and leave the ring on the stereo 1/8 unconnected. Or if you want, get a second 1/4 mono and connect it's tip to the ring on the 1/8 jack and the sleeve to the sleeve on the 1/8 and that will give you the option of connecting two preamps. You will need to use sheilded wire. All components should be available at your local radio shack for less than 10 bucks.If i've totally confused you with my rambling you can give me a call and I'll try to clarify.

Glenn
419-675-8172 day 7am-3pm ET(I'm working day shift this weekend)
740-499-3542 home

Another problem might be if your pre-amp has balanced out on the 1/4 inch and you connect that to a stereo line input, then you are sending identical signals that are 180 degrees out of phase to your DAW mixer. If you sum these to mono they will cancel out.

That being said I do not really think this is the problem since the 1/4 inch output is rated at +22dBU vs the XLR's +28dBU which usually means the 1/4 inch is one unbalanced leg of the XLR output.

It would be nice if ART would spec the output format in their specifications.